Sparklings: Secrets
by Water-smurf
Summary: Part of the Sparkling series. Rosemist decides to eavesdrop on her mother-creator's and Perceptor's conversation and learns an interesting fact about her uncles' relationship.


Rosemist had a secret, but she wouldn't tell.

It wasn't _her_ secret. She herself didn't have many secrets. But she had most of the secrets that were housed in the Ark walls, even some that she needed clearance to know. She had these secrets by listening and noticing things. She also knew them because she was patient.

She found out this secret when she was in the forest playing with Sprite and Bolt. Beachcomber, her father, and Perceptor were sitting on a hill a little ways away so they could make sure that their children were okay but at the same time talk privately. Cast Off, Rosemist's twin, wasn't there of course. He didn't like playing in the same old places. He liked finding new places and playing in them, but he got tired of them quickly and ran off to the next adventure.

Of course, she didn't keep this secret because it was specifically important to her. She kept it because it would hurt her friends to know it.

She learned it when she wandered away from Sprite and Bolt. She had meant to go to her dad to ask about a flower she had found. It was a pretty purple flower that she had never seen before, but she knew that her daddy would know. He knew everything about these things.

Yet… when she saw her daddy and her uncle together, just sitting on the grass, she didn't want to disturb them. She went up a tree instead and sat on a branch where they wouldn't see her.

Sparklings in general weren't supposed to be able to climb trees, but the sparklings created on Earth had a lighter and more agile design than the ones built on other planets. Rosemist herself was a pretty sparkling, slightly more slender than her cousin Sprite. She had somewhat dark pink and black and silver armor with distant optics and a simple (sort of) dark pink helmet. Her deft fingers easily grabbed the branches and pulled her up. Her fingers may as well have been made of human flesh rather than metal.

She curled up on her branch, smiling dreamily and dangling an arm down like a sloth. She would like to meet a sloth. Maybe one day, if Daddy Cosmos was ever sent to someplace they inhabited, he would let her come and see a sloth. Speaking of which, she would have to ask Daddy Seaspray about teaching her deep-water swimming…

"Beachcomber, I've been anxious."

Rosemist perked up at the sound of her uncle's voice. She crawled forward a little, her little flower in hand, and looked down at the two adult Autobots from her tree. Perceptor was sitting with his face tilted towards the ground, and Beachcomber was looking up at him with a small smile on his face.

"Why, Percy?"

There was a long pause, Perceptor looking up at the blue sky and avoiding his friend's optics. "I've been insecure about Ratchet, Wheeljack, and my relationship."

Rosemist shifted on the branch, cocking her head. She could tell by her uncle's expression that he was more than just a little insecure. The same instinct that told her what an animal was feeling or what someone else was feeling told her that he was actually extremely 'insecure.'

It was odd, really. After the conception of the sparklings, most parents didn't stay together. Rosemist and Cast Off's own Father Beachcomber, Father Seaspray, and Father Cosmos didn't stay together. In some families, there was even a small amount of contention between parents. It wasn't exactly a secret that Powerglide resented Swoop and his daughter, Scrap, because of his relationship with Astoria. And Cliffjumper and Brawn argued with one another and weren't exactly affectionate with Canyon, their daughter. But there were exceptions to the rule.

Red Alert and Prowl started seeing each other after the birth of their twins, but they hadn't bonded yet. Jazz and Smokescreen had a similar relationship. Most other parents were on friendly terms and would possibly begin a relationship again in the future. Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Perceptor, however, had bonded shortly after Sprite and Bolt's conception. It was something that arguably gave Sprite and Bolt the healthiest family to grow up in, but the thought that their bond wasn't perfect…

"Why, Percy?" Beachcomber asked softly.

Perceptor hesitated, and for a moment, Rosemist thought he would say 'Never mind' and let it drop. But he didn't.

"Our bond… it wasn't originally one born of romantic love."

Rosemist frowned, crawling forward a little more.

"Why did you three make it, then?" Beachcomber asked seriously, leaning back a little.

"I…" Perceptor looked down, pausing again. "You know the mechanics of pregnancy, correct?"

"It stopped being common knowledge when the war started, Percy," Beachcomber said with a soft smile.

"Well, you do know that you are unable to become pregnant your first several times interfacing, correct?"

Rosemist cocked an optic ridge. Most sparklings found out about the mechanics of interfacing from the twins, but she had never heard of this.

"Yeah. You need the information from the first times to cushion the spark chamber for a new spark, right?" Beachcomber asked, glancing at the scientist.

Perceptor nodded slowly. "Correct. The problem was…" he looked down again, "the time that Sprite and Bolt were conceived was my first."

"Oh. I see."

Perceptor looked up, nervously clasping and unclasping his hands. Rosemist cocked her head a little, then smiled benignly again. She sympathized with her uncle. It must have been embarrassing to admit all of this. But at the same time, she could easily visualize him as a virgin.

"The drug that Sideswipe had used in our energon was a fertility drug as well as an aphrodisiac, remember? That was why I became impregnated. My spark reacted badly and my spark chamber attempted to cushion itself using my own information, but it only managed to hurt my spark worse. And I was carrying _twins_, Beachcomber. _Twins._"

Perceptor paused again, and Beachcomber made no attempt to urge him on.

"Ratchet and Wheeljack bonded with me because I would need the support their sparks could provide if I hoped to survive our sparklings' birth. I fear that they only did it because they were guilty and thought that they were the ones who put me in the situation in the first place. I… I fear that our bond is only continuing because they feel obligated to me and to our children. I fear that they hold no love of that nature for me."

The scientist hugged himself and looked at the ground again, avoiding his friend's optics. Beachcomber had a slight frown on his face as he looked up at the sky. "Do you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you feel love like that for them?"

He didn't even hesitate this time. "Yes. With all my spark, yes."

"So then I can tell you that you have nothing to worry about." Beachcomber leaned back so that he was lying down, making a pillow out of his hands. "It's obvious. They really do love you and the kids. They love each other, too. Haven't you noticed that Ratchet is calmer when one of you are around? Or that Wheeljack makes much more small and harmless explosions when he has been around you, Ratchet, Sprite, or Bolt for a long time? That's his way of saying he's happy. And do you remember Valentine's Day?"

Perceptor ducked his head, hiding his grin. "Wheeljack made Ratchet and I metallic versions of Earth flora."

"He made you metal roses, man. I remember him coming up to me and asking what flowers human mates usually give to each other, and then he asked for a real one. After that, he just went ahead and made some. That takes real craftsmanship. And patience. I don't think he would've done it for anyone else," Beachcomber said, smiling. "And Ratchet doesn't mind looking showing actual affection to any of you. You know what that means to him. They love you, man."

Perceptor looked up and smiled with genuine happiness behind it. The geologist had put his insecurities to rest. Rosemist could tell that he would probably still talk to Uncle Ratchet and Uncle Wheeljack about it, but her daddy had managed to calm his worried mind.

She brought her pretty purple flower to her face, brushing the soft petals against her cheek and shimmying backwards on the branch. She knew that her daddy was right. She could see it in the subtle tender moments and the sweet smiles her three uncles shared. There was real love there. She would have told her uncle that, but she wasn't supposed to know.

And now she had a secret.

She knew that the bond was made for medical reasons. She knew that Sprite and Bolt didn't know. She knew that Sprite would think that her parents didn't love each other and Bolt would become insecure in the integrity of his family if they knew. So she kept the secret.

With a little dreamy smile, she looked up at the sky. Yes, she had a secret.

But one could expect that she'd never tell.

A/N

This a part of my sparkling series, where one of Sideswipe's pranks gets out of hand and the consequences of it turns out to be lots and lots of sparklings for almost everyone stationed in the Ark. I put some background to it here. Comments, insults, critique, etc. would do great in a review!

Enzan_Lover and Eerian_Sadow from LJ were kind enough to beta this.


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